TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State (27-12) has won five straight home games and are looking to extend that streak this weekend as they host the Dallas Baptist Patriots ()27-13) in a Missouri Valley Conference matchup on Bob Warn Field at Sycamore Stadium.

The Sycamores had last weekend off from conference play and will enter this weekend with a 7-5 mark in league play. Dallas Baptist lost two of three games to visiting Evansville last weekend as they fell to 6-3 in league play. The Patriots currently share first place with Evansville while the Sycamores shared third place with Illinois State.

The two schools will open action at 6:30 p.m. Friday with the Saturday game set for 2 p.m. and the Sunday game at 1 p.m.

Friday Matchups: David Stagg (5-3) will make his 11th start of the season with the junior left hander posting a 2.28 ERA through 67.0 innings of work. He has given up 18 runs on 45 hits while striking out 65 and walking 31. He will be up against junior right hander Paul Voelker (6-3) who will also be making his 11th start of the season. Voelker has a 3.28 ERA in 60.1 innings of work while giving up 28 runs on 48 while with 23 walks and 59 strikeouts.

Saturday Matchups: Brad Lombard (6-1) will make his 11th start of the season with the junior right hander posting a 3.18 ERA through 65.0 innings of work. He has given up 27 runs on 58 hits while walking 25 and striking out 42. He will be up against junior right hander Cy Sneed (6-2) who will also be making his 11th start of the season. Sneed has a 3.12 ERA in 66.1 innings of work while giving up 26 runs on 62 hits with 23 walks and 49 strikeouts.

Sunday Matchups: Kurt Kudrecki (4-3) has been the Sunday starter for Indiana State most of the season and may be in line for his 11th start of the season and 15th of his career as a Sycamore this Sunday. Kudrecki has a 4.08 ERA in 53.0 innings of work while allowing 35 runs on 62 hits with 24 walks and 30 strikeouts. On the mound for Dallas Baptist will be Cory Taylor (3-2), a sophomore right handed pitcher, who will be making his 12th appearance and 10th start on Sunday. Taylor has a 3.45 ERA in 57.1 innings of work, allowing 25 runs on 42 hits with 27 walks and a team high 61 strikeouts.

Off Days Ahead For Sycamores

With finals set for next week at Indiana State, the Sycamore baseball team will have the week off from competition to concentrate on their classwork as the spring semester comes to a close. Indiana State was scheduled to host Grambling for a three-game series on May 2-3-4 but those games were cancelled by Grambling earlier this season. Sycamore head coach Mitch Hannahs has been looking for a replacement game or two for that weekend but has not been able to locate an available opponent. The next game on the schedule is a May 7 visit to Ball State ahead of the final home weekend series of the year against Missouri State (May 9-10-11).

Series Notes:

Vs. Dallas Baptist: This is just the seventh meeting between the two schools and the first meeting as Missouri Valley Conference opponents. Dallas Baptist leads the series 4-2 after winning the first four games but the Sycamores won the last two games 7-3 and 7-5 at the tail end of a three-game series in 2012.

Last Time Out

The Victory Bell rang for an Indiana State victory as the Sycamores defeated the Butler Bulldogs for the ninth straight time with a 2-1 victory Wednesday. The game was played at Victory Field which is the home of the Indianapolis Indians, a Triple A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Five pitchers saw work for Indiana State during the game with freshman Mike Hammel, who grew up just north of Indianapolis, getting his first start of his collegiate career. Hammel went 2.1 innings before A.J. McElderry took over in the third and went 2.2 innings. Nick Martin worked 1.1 innings, Austin Conway 0.2, and Josh Dove 2.0.

McElderry (2-0) picked up the win with Dove recording his first save of the season. The Sycamore pitchers combined to allow one run on six hits while striking out five and walking one.

The Sycamores scored two runs on seven hits with Landon Curry, Jacob Hayes, and Derek Hannahs each hitting two singles. Cody Zimmerman also had a single in the game.

On Tuesday, Indiana State recorded their fourth win of the season over a Big Ten opponent as they took control early and sailed to a 10-3 victory over the visiting Purdue Boilermakers on Bob Warn Field at Sycamore Stadium.

Trent Lunsford started on the hill for Indiana State and went four complete innings and retired 12 of the first 13 batters he faced before running into trouble in the fifth. He was charged with two runs on one hit while striking out one and walking three before leaving the game.

Nick Kolarik made his 20th appearance of the season as he took over with the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth, finishing the game to improve to 4-1 on the season by allowing just one run on four hits while striking out one and walking one.

The Sycamores scored 10 runs on 12 hits. Jacob Hayes and Jeff Zahn were both 3-for-5 on the night with each hitting a double and two singles. Derek Hannahs had two singles while Michael Eberle had a double, and Landon Curry, Mike Fitzgerald, and Tyler Wampler had a single each.